Thangaraj & Associates

On the court record

Thangaraj & Associates is a Malaysian firm whose reported matters before the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan) are concentrated in land, public law and civil procedure, with significant work for and against State authorities. In the land field it has appeared in an appeal against a State authority's decision on the alienation of land under section 418 of the National Land Code, and in a land-reference matter challenging a compensation award, arguing over the value of the land and whether a particular plot ratio should be applied. Its public-law work includes acting in an application for leave for judicial review and the objections and amendments surrounding it, and appearing in a judicial review challenging the validity of a planning permission granted for the construction of a permanent disposal facility for industrial waste.

The firm's civil-procedure and commercial practice is substantial. It has argued striking-out applications under Order 18 Rule 19 of the Rules of Court 2012, including a matter where sale and purchase agreements executed after the presentation of a winding-up petition were said to be void ab initio in the absence of a validation order, and where a contract claim was time-barred under the six-year limitation, and a matter in which an earlier civil suit decided after full trial and upheld on appeal rendered a later claim res judicata and obviously unsustainable. It has also appeared in a full-trial claim founded on conspiracy to induce a company to breach its contract of payment.

The reported profile is that of a land and public-law litigation practice engaged with the alienation and compulsory acquisition of land and the compensation payable, the judicial review of planning and administrative decisions, and the striking out of unsustainable claims on grounds of limitation, res judicata and the avoidance of post-petition dispositions.